The Pakistan Religious Violence Project, an undertaking of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, tracked over the past 18

months publicly reported attacks against religious communities in Pakistan. The findings are sobering: 203 incidents of sectarian violence resulting in more than 1,800 casualties, including over 700 deaths. The Shi’a community bore the brunt of attacks from militants and terrorist organizations, with some of the deadliest attacks occurring during holy months and pilgrimages.

While Shi’a are more at risk of becoming victims of suicide bombings and targeted shootings, the already

poor religious freedom environment for Christians, Ahmadis, and Hindus continued to deteriorate, with a

number violent incidents occurring against members of these communities.

The information the Project gathered is based on reports and news articles available in the public domain.

The Project seeks to be inclusive, tracking all reported incidents involving physical attacks targeting a

member of a religious community or a major religious gathering place (church, shrine, or mosque).

However, it is not exhaustive and some acts of violence are certain to have been overlooked.

While each incident has not been independently verified, the accompanying Factsheet provides a hyperlink to the

Comparative Connections v.15 n.2 – Australia – East Asia/US Relations

Election plus Marines, Joint Facilities and the Asian Century

By Graeme Dobell Sep 15, 2013

The past year saw the unfolding of the withdrawal timetable from Afghanistan, the second rotation of US Marines to northern Australia, the first “Full Knowledge and Concurrence” statement on US facilities on Australian soil in six years, and the end of Australia’s long-term military deployments in Timor Leste and Solomon Islands. The Gillard government produced a trio of major policy statements built on an understanding that Asia’s “extraordinary ascent” means Australia is entering “a truly transformative period in our history.” Meanwhile, Australian politics experienced a bit of turmoil. With the Labor Parliamentary Caucus in disarray the Liberal-National Coalition led by Tony Abbot won the national election in early September. In the end, not being Julia Gillard or Kevin Rudd was enough for an Abbott triumph.

Common Sense Guide to Mitigating Insider Threats

This fourth edition of the Common Sense Guide to Mitigating Insider Threats provides the most current recommendations from the CERT® Program, part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, based on an expanded database of more than 700 insider threat cases and continued research and analysis. This edition includes mappings to the National
Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) Special Publication 800-53, the CERT Resilience Management Model, and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC’s) standard 27002:2005. Furthermore, each practice lists several recommendations that organizations of various sizes should implement immediately to mitigate (prevent, detect, and respond to) insider threats. Read More.

Foreign Spies Stealing US Economic Secrets in Cyberspace

Foreign economic collection and industrial espionage against the United States represent significant and growing threats to the nation’s prosperity and security. Cyberspace—where most business activity and development of new ideas now takes place—amplifies these threats by making it possible for malicious actors, whether they are corrupted insiders or foreign intelligence services (FIS), to quickly steal and transfer massive quantities of data while remaining anonymous and hard to detect.

County-level Correlates of Terrorism in the United States, 1990 to 2010

Final Report to the Resilient Systems Division,Science and Technology Directorate,U.S. Department of Homeland Security

March 2013

About This Report

The authors of this report are Gary LaFree, Director of START at the University of Maryland, College Park and Bianca E. Bersani, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Questions about this report should be directed to garylafree@gmail.com

.

This report is part of a series sponsored by the Resilient Systems Division, Science and Technology

Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in support of the Prevent/Deter program. The

goal of this program is to sponsor research that will aid the intelligence and law enforcement

communities in assessing potential terrorist threats and support policymakers in developing

prevention efforts.

This research was supported by under Grant Award Number 2009ST108LR0003 from the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security through awards made to the National Consortium for the Study

of Terrorism andResponses to Terrorism (START).

The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted

as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of theU.S. Department of Homeland Security or START.

A chart from the recent study “Global Shell Games” comparing the compliance levels for the establishment of corporations in various countries. The higher the value, the more compliant the country is with international regulations according to the study’s findings.

Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University

Publication Year: 2013

This issue of the CAD examines changes in Georgian foreign policy since the Fall 2012 parliamentary elections, which gave the opposition control of the legislature. The first article examines Georgia’s ties with its neighbor Turkey – they have been close under Saakashvili and are likely to remain strong given the mutual interests of both sides. The second article shows how the new government is trying to maintain close ties with the West while simultaneously improving its relationship with Russia. The third article notes a surprising increase in support for better relations with Russia, but points out that this change did not affect Georgians’ strong support for joining the EU and NATO.

Al-Qaeda at the Crossroads: How the terror group is responding to the loss of its leaders & the Arab Spring

A new policy paper by ICSR argues that Al Qaeda is at its most critical juncture since it was established more than 20 years ago. Based on speeches and papers by Al Qaeda leaders as well as contributions to jihadist internet forums, ICSR analysts Shiraz Maher and Peter Neumann have tracked the movement’s responses over a period of twelve months, which included the killing of Osama bin Laden and the onset of the Arab Spring.

The paper shows that the death of leadership figures, in itself, has done little to undermine the essentialist nature of the group’s ideology. More significant, according to the paper’s authors, have been events that Al Qaeda had little to do with and could not control: the political transformation across the Middle East, which started with the popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

As Maher and Neumann demonstrate, Al Qaeda has struggled to make sense of the Arab Spring:

In the first few months, it tried to construct an “alternative narrative” that gave Al Qaeda a more prominent – if not, instrumental – role in bringing about the downfall of authoritarian rulers.

When this narrative failed to gain traction , while the Islamic character of the uprisings became more obvious, Al Qaeda attempted to reach out to other Islamists. Though surprisingly pragmatic, this outreach was largely unsuccessful: the group had nothing to offer in an era in which it seemed that Islamist objectives could be achieved through constitutional means.

Finally, where popular revolutions in places like Libya and Syria have evolved into violent conflicts, Al Qaeda has tried to exploit the situation. For example, jihadists seem to be playing a growing role in Syria, yet – so far – they have failed to fully capitalize on what may be its only opportunity to re-gain momentum.

The two authors conclude that, Al Qaeda’s responses to the Arab Spring are of an organization that is losing momentum, while – at the same time – also presenting new opportunities. Al Qaeda, therefore, is at a crossroads: whether or not it survives will be decided by how well it adapts to events that are beyond its control.

The report was made possible by the Gerda Henkel and the Smith Richardson Foundations.

On January 21, 2013, Sahara Media posted a two minute video featuring Mokhtar Belmokhtar (aka Khalid abu Al-Abbas), in which Belmokhtar claimed credit for the attack on the In Amenas complex that left at least 37 hostages dead. Belmokhtar stated, “We, in Al-Qaida Organization, we announce our responsibility for this sacrificial blessed operation, which was led by 40 Mujahideen, Muhajirin and Ansar, from various Muslim countries, and even from Western countries.” He continued, “…we are ready to negotiate with the Western countries and the Algerian regime on the condition of halting the aggression and the raids on the Muslim Malian people. As to the Americans, we say: we are ready to exchange all of your hostages held by us, in return for releasing the Shaykh, patient scholar Omar Abdulrahman…as well as our patient sister Aafia Siddiqui…”

On January 24, 2013, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen issued an official video response to the ongoing French military invention in Mali. Curiously, the new AQAP recording is circulating on top-tier jihadi forums but was not posted online by the designated AQAP media courier (users on top jihadi forums are expressing confusion over this distribution method). AQAP stated, “O French people: this aggression, abuse and injustice will only cause you calamity and disasters… ” The message continued, “We, the Al-Qaida Organization in the Arabian Peninsula, advise the French government and people to back away from this aggression…The Muslims are one body…it is impossible for us to see our brothers in faith facing aggression without moving to support them.”

Turkey and the Bomb

http://www.state.gov/documents/…/89959.pdfprovided a two-week Anti-Terrorism Diver consultation to Qatar, Jordan, U.A.E., … kidnapping units (GAULA), ATA augmented Crisis Response Team training ….. the cost of each presentation can vary considerably, the experience after the first … ATA developed its newest form of ITO to take a more pro-active approach in …

http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/…/Gauri-Khandek&#8230;2 Tony Bunyan, Trevi, Europol and the European state, Statewatching the new …. EU legislation forms an essential element in the fight against terrorism. …. terrorism Unit and its newly established (after 9/11) Counter-terrorism Task Force to gather … (Switzerland and Norway’s) heads of counter-terrorism units to engage in …

Report of the Pat Finucane Review

The report of an independent review into British state involvement in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane has been published.

Finucane was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries in front of his family at his home in 1989. There have been long-standing allegations of state collusion in the murder.

Rt Hon Sir Desmond de Silva’s report concludes that there was no overarching state conspiracy to murder Finucane but confirmed that agents of the state were involved in the killing and that it should have been prevented. The report reveals shocking levels of state collusion:

There were extensive “leaks” of security force information to the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and other loyalist paramilitary groups.

There was a failure by the authorities to act on threat intelligence.

Employees of the state and state agents played “key roles” in the murder.

There was a failure to investigate and arrest key members of the West Belfast UDA over a long period of time.

There was a wider “relentless attempt to defeat the ends of justice” after the murder had taken place.

Specifically on the issue of collusion between British security forces and the loyalist UDA, the report finds that:

85% of intelligence that the UDA used to target people for murder originated from army and police sources.

270 separate instances of security force leaks to the UDA between January 1987 and September 1989.

In conclusion, the review found that Royal Ulster Constabulary officers proposed Finucane be killed and passed information to his killers; they failed to stop the attack and then obstructed the murder investigation.